Conventionally, an airbag apparatus is provided in front of a driver's seat and a passenger seat of a vehicle to protect an occupant from a collision impact. Patent Document 1 discloses an example of an airbag apparatus.
The airbag apparatus described in Patent Document 1 is provided with a recessed portion, which extends in a vertical direction near a center of a passenger's side during expansion and deployment, and protruded portions situated on both left and right sides of the recessed portion. During the expansion and deployment of the airbag, a front side of an occupant's head enters the recessed portion and is protected from a collision impact.
With regard to the airbag apparatus described in Patent Document 1, the head, however, may roll on a surface of the airbag when another vehicle diagonally collides with the vehicle from front. Adjustment to a shape, deployment pressure or alike of the airbag may contribute to overcoming the aforementioned problem. It has been repeated to make prototypes and conduct experiments for identifying optimum conditions about the shape, deployment pressure or alike. However, these conventional approaches take a long development time.
Patent Document
Patent Document 1: JP 2013-82454 A